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Caletti, Deb

A Flicker of Courage: Tales of Triumph and Disaster!

243 pp. | Putnam | January, 2020 | Trade ISBN 978-1-9848-1305-3 $13.99
(2) 4-6 Henry's life is a misery on all fronts. His parents are cruel and neglectful, and his province is ruled by a malevolent madman with magic powers. Henry survives by keeping his head down, but a local tragedy catapults him into action and heroism. The evil Vlad Luxor has turned Rocco, the little boy next door, into a lizard, so Henry joins Rocco's older brother and two brave and capable girls from school in a quest to break the spell. The breathless plot that follows is rich in riddle-solving, cliffhangers, hiding from bad guys, lock-picking, near-death experiences, riding bikes really fast, and comedy. Some of the humor is comfortably corny: a baker named Ms. Esmé Silvooplay; a store called Socket-Toomey Hardware. Some is satirical: Vlad builds walls, hates science, and has hair that "loops upward like a soft-serve ice cream cone." Some is visual: the story is generously illustrated with retro images from old postcards, handbooks, vintage ads, and wonderfully weird photos, images that relate in a wacky and tangential way to the text, often in response to a simile. At one point when the normally quiet Henry speaks, "some words form and fly out of his mouth like a mostly orderly flock of geese"; the accompanying photo shows geese flying in V formation. It's an original, deadpan touch that keeps the tone buoyant in this exhilarating, often poignant adventure.
Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2020

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